Remaining evacuees going home Tuesday

Officials with the province confirmed Monday that most remaining wildfire evacuees staying in North Battleford were scheduled to return home Tuesday.

As of Monday morning, only 32 northern evacuees were still in North Battleford under the supervision of Emergency Social Services and the Red Cross.

According to Karri Kempf, manager of information/emergency services for Social Services, “everyone left in North Battleford are medical priorities, except for nine who are receiving health care services where they have set appointments — for example, for dialysis or something like that. We’ll allow them to finish their treatment regimens before they’re returned to their community.”

But “the bulk of North Battleford” was to be cleared by Tuesday evening, she confirmed.

The evacuees, from the the La Loche and Turner Lake area, had been staying in local hotels.

The City of North Battleford has provided those individuals with access to recreational facilities, including the field house and aquatic centre.

Last Thursday a recreational family day was hosted at the field house and there was an evening event at Don Ross Centre that included food, music and entertainment.  

The number of evacuees has swiftly declined in the Battlefords after word last Thursday that evacuation orders were lifted for La Loche, Turner Lake and Birch Narrows.

Several other communities have also seen evacuation orders lifted, including the major news on Friday that the order was lifted in La Ronge.

Numbers of people staying in the various evacuation receiving centres were way down, as a steady stream of evacuees have returned to the various communities over the weekend.

Overall, 2,862 evacuees were still receiving support from Social Services as of Sunday night, way down from numbers upwards of 10,000 that were reported several days earlier.

The total in Prince Albert was 1,194, Saskatoon, 1,284 and Regina 352.

Kempf expected the overall number to be “well under 900 persons” by Tuesday. She said she expected the number of evacuees receiving Social Services to be down to “a few dozen by Wednesday morning.”

In speaking to a media conference call, Colin King, deputy commissioner and director of operations, emergency management and fire safety with the Ministry of Government Relations, said Monday, “we are nearly complete the evacuation and repatriation portion of this major operation.”

In La Loche and Turner Lake, “final medical services are arranged for the community before the planned return of their health priority evacuees.”

Most of the provincial agencies had been scaling back their operations, with final steps to assist those final returns of evacuees to communities.  

Twenty-eight buses with over 1,000 people were planned for the return to their home communities, and those communities had everything in place to receive them and assist them with getting back to their homes, said King.

While the evacuation and repatriation portion of the operation is wrapping up, provincial wildfire fighters will continue on with their role, even after most of the people are home, said King.

“It’s been a complex, and occasionally trying, but overall successful operation thus far.”